Horizons Understanding Fed Navy Strike Contract details

[ChipStar65]

I think I know what's needed but want to check before wasting time & fuel on a hunch.

After completing a Fed Navy Strike Contract on 6 "pirates" (i.e., anyone the Feds don't like, apparently), a new job popped up in Transactions, another Fed Navy Strike Contract, which I was not offered and which I did not formally Accept. It said to meet the contract-giver on a base in the system (not the system where the strike was to be done) to "Come and get your reward...". Kind of odd since I hadn't yet done the new contract, but whatever, I jumped to the target system to see what's what. The contract said to look in the target system's "Conflict Zones." No conflict zones in the target system.

I checked out a number of USSs of Threat 1 and 2 to see if my target party would show. Nope, there were "Wanted" but not in the contract target party. Finally, in SC I scanned a Viper that was a member of the target party -- it read "Clean." So apparently I have an assignment with no actual targets. Would I have to Abandon the mission (never a good choice, it seems)? That would be extra-crappy since I had not actually accepted the new contract in the first place.

Then I thought that maybe, it wouldn't make much sense, but just maybe, if I visited the contract-giver, got my "reward," which I hypothesized must mean my pay for the already-complete mission, this new mission would fully engage. I mean, that is a really roundabout way to assign a mission, but it's the only thing that makes sense at the moment. Is that how these"follow-on" Navy Strike missions work?

 

[d8veh]

That sounds like a massacre mission. You have to find the conflict zone where the two sides are fighting each other. Read up aboout how to work in conflict zones before you go or you'll be looking at a lot of rebuys. The conflict zones are normally near a planet. You can't see them until you're within 1000ls. Here's my guide to conflict zones using a Sidewinder - easy when you know how:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsJbCB45Iv8

 

[ChipStar65]

I know about Conflict Zones. They have shown up frequently in many of the systems I've visited. There were none in the target system when I went there. Not in open space, not on any planet, not in any rings, not in the Nav panel. None. The assignment was to take out 2 bounty hunters of a certain faction. The only one of this faction I found in the system after an extensive search came up "Clean" on my scan, which means not a legitimate target, and I would have been given a big bounty for taking him out. This is contrary to all other Fed Navy Strike Contracts I have already fulfilled (3), but those were jobs I took from Mission Boards and accepted formally. The questionable mission just popped up in my Transactions.

I decided to skip it, collected my pay for the hits that I had already done before getting the questionable assignment, and lo and behold the questionable one went away. The mission language was clear as mud, but I think if I had met with the guy to get that pay, I would have had the new mission enabled. I'll try this out next time this situation occurs.